Defending champion San Beda College and Jose Rizal University collide today for the basketball championship at the Araneta Coliseum amid another controversy that hit the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

On the eve of the sudden death match, the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) pulled out its referees in response to charges of poor officiating.

In a strongly-worded statement, PBL Commissioner Chino Trinidad said their referees are being used as scapegoats and “we will not idly stand-by while our reputation, which we had worked so hard to acquire, is being damaged by these unfair hints and allegations.”

Throughout the season, the NCAA had been hit by allegations of game-fixing.

The PBL pullout came as both the Lions and the Bombers are preparing for separate dates with history.

The Lions are hoping to become only the third NCAA team to complete a hat trick of victories while the Bombers are eyeing their first title in 36 years.

Momentum is on the side of the Bombers who edged San Beda, 62-60, last Friday to forge the winner-take-all match.

The win gave the Bombers a chance to gift JRU coach Ariel Vanguardia a present on his 36th birthday today.

Big men Jayson Nocom and James Sena starred in the Bombers’ win, but it was Nchotu Njei who preserved the victory when he got up from a slip and grabbed the rebound off Pong Escobal’s miss from three-point range.

The Bombers will also rely on gunners John Wilson and Marc Cagoco.

At the red-and-white camp, Escobal is aching to redeem himself from that miss and cap his collegiate career with a victory.

He and Nigerian center Sam Ekwe are playing their final games as Lions.

Other players expected to rise to the occasion for the defending champions are Ogie Menor, Borgie Hermida, and Jay-R Taganas.

Defense has been the key for both teams in the first two games of the series.

San Beda held off Bomber rallies in the first game to win while JRU limited the prolific Lions offense to 60 points and 36 percent field goal shooting in Game 2.

The Lions also committed 22 errors to Jose Rizal’s 13.

“It is going to be a war,” Vanguardia vowed.

“Todo na ito,” SBC coach Frankie Lim said. “Who wants it more will win.”